The pony-shaped dragon once known as “Type 5, Version 3, Number 6” winged his way over the frozen wastes north of Equestria, deliberating. He knew what had gone wrong with his plan: the sheer bad luck that something had shown up capable of seeing through his disguise. He planned ways to avoid that happening in the future, and how to retrieve what remained of his machinations.

Doubtless, the Equestrian mind magicians would find the command word he’d put in Celestia. There was nothing he could do about that. They might find his other mental probes as well, and Celestia would certainly make sure that she and her sister would not be so vulnerable next time. His next attempt, therefore, could not incorporate mind-warping either Princess, at least not nearly as extensively as this previous plan called for. To be safe, he should spend as little time in Equestria as possible, and if it was absolutely necessary, he should know Alexander’s whereabouts with certainty.

Mainly, he was alive and uninjured, and his powers of disguise and manipulation remained undiminished. Only one being on the planet could see through his illusions, leaving millions vulnerable. His preparations elsewhere were untouched, and those could be modified.

He concluded that his next attempt to loot Equestria, the richest country on the planet, had to come from outside. That mattered little. It might be the richest, but it was far from the only one.

As he flew, he looked down at one glacier in particular. Under there was his point of origin. Point of origin, because although his earliest memories were of there, he doubted that it was his birthplace. Few beings nowadays were aware that under the monochromatic expanse slept an entire city, locked under the ice since its mad overlord had tried to drag it into oblivion with him. Fewer still knew that underneath it was a laboratory dedicated to creating Sombra’s perfect enforcers, among them the Type Fives, the infiltrators. All of it could stay frozen forever, for all the dragon cared. He had no desire to reminisce. He’d been engineered, he’d been trained, he’d escaped, he’d eliminated the others, enough time spent on that topic.

His thoughts returned to Equestria. Small wonder dragons like himself were drawn to the place. There was enough gold in Canterlot alone to keep a dragon busy for years hunting it all down to build the grandest hoard in history. The screams of the gold’s former owners would make the gathering all that much sweeter.

It was a fantasy, of course; a being powerful enough to move a celestial body could vaporize him with a glance. Pitched battles were Celestia’s forte. He would be a fool to meet her in one.

In the meantime, he could amuse himself with what trouble he had caused. The little ponies might, he thought with a dark chuckle, go looking for the real Wise Counsel. He laughed because there was no green pegasus pony under that name. There never had been. It had been the dragon all along. In his judgment, it was safer to take years getting setting up a plan than replacing someone already known. He was patient.

Thinking about engineering identities made him wonder about his own. Not in any high philosophical sense, but in a much simpler one. He was tired of thinking of himself as “Five-Three-Six.” The dragons from whom the numbers had differentiated him were all dead, most at his own horn and claws. It was time he chose a name. He recalled a bit of information from another world.

“Hannibal…one of the other greatest generals…a fictional murderer had that name, and a real one got nicknamed that too.”

The dragon considered. The name had a kind of exotic malice to it, good. And very few understood its full significance, even better. No one else, once he found an assassin good enough to get rid of the alien.

That name works nicely, he thought with a rare smile. I am Hannibal.

The wind whistled mournfully over the snow. Hannibal went back to scheming.

Author's Note

You read my story through to the finish! Thank you!

If the above statement applies to you, there are some things you ought to know.

I raised a lot of issues and questions and resolved very few of them. This was intentional. It's a "premeire." That's right, there's more where this came from! Think of this as a pilot episode of a TV show, and you're the executive to whom I'm pitching it. Do you want to have more? Tell me! Leave a comment! This show can go on for as long as you are willing to support me. Or to the end-of-Season 5 mark, whichever comes first. Yes, I have plans out that far ahead. I tend to not do things by half measures, this included.

As a final note, yes, every future episode will end with a classic rock song as a sort of credits music. I encourage you to listen to the songs, because I'll never put a bad one in and every one will be related to the episode in some way. Some will even foreshadow future episodes! If classic rock isn't your thing, skip the song and you'll be fine.

Until the Season 1 opener, good-bye!